Eh...whatever. Et cetera

Enough wallowing. Back to business here in this house. I am undergoing an attitude adjustment, which I am sure you know I sorely need.

Or I would be back to business if I was not sick as hell again. I cannot do anything, lest I start coughing again, which as often as not makes me throw up. I sweat, then I shiver, then I sneeze, and now my throat is starting to hurt.

I have not worked out a single day this week, since my training session on Monday. I feel awful. It does not help that it is non-stop raining, so everything is a mess and the barn is flooded again. That just makes me more depressed and feel crappier.

In other news, HaidaGirl was bred Tuesday morning, to Sophisticated Catt. They sent AWESOME semen, which was exciting since I heard from people that bred to him last year that it was only average. Maybe there was a difference in him from showing to win a World Championship, and being full on retired like he is this year. HG ovulated right on time, so now we wait. Aries is being bred to him Saturday morning. Getting her to this stage has been problematic, she just would not build a follicle. I cannot even tell you how many lutes or estrumates she has had, and finally we just now got her to a 30 mm follicle. I cannot for the life of me remember what she did last year, so we are Regumating her to hold her off until then. I am burning through all those jillions of bottles of Regumate that tend to stack up over the various seasons finally.So many things have happened around here that I have not gotten to blog about. For example, we had mass gelding day recently. Well, "mass" if two counts--that is all I had in the 2008 foal crop. Here Uno loves me, because he had no idea what was coming next.


Here he is half way through the process--that is some nut material laying up on his side. And that is a polo shirt over his eyes--it helps them sleep through it better, although he was up and at 'em in minutesPoor Uno did hot have all his gear in an easily accessible position, so it took some digging to get those little buggers out of there. As usual though, Dr M fixed him right up.



The next one we did was Reno. Normally I would not be so tacky as to take and post pics of this, but look at this poor fool. His little nuts were so tiny--and long, goofy shape. Definitely good he was gelded as those things likely would not have worked for any useful purpose anyway. No wonder he had no idea he was a boy, like Uno did. The doc had several potential explanations for the teeny nuts, which was interesting and not something I have ever seen. To be honest though, we normally cut all our boys so young that it does not become something you think much about, unless you know they are destined to remain intact at least for a while.

That gets one more annual spring job out of the way.

I feel like I am behind everything by a month this year. That may well turn out to be a good thing for us, considering how everything has gone berserk this week. It would be nice if Foxy and Snap, both of whom are overdue, could hang on until it dried out around here a little--whenever that might be.

We still have no final verdict on Barry's job situation. Evidently, there is a deal in the works with the bank that has been fronting the operating costs for his company--if they all agree to this, which should happen (if it is going to) by tomorrow--they will be okay for a couple months maybe. Time enough to get a new position, at least. That time might manage to get the State of Illinois to move their asses and pay the company the many millions they owe them--and thereby keep them out of bankruptcy.

Monday nite, some of them were given the option of riding out this week (which ends tomorrow at the end of the pay period) on the basis that they know they are gambling that they will not get paid. He decided to do that--so now we wait and hope to have a verdict tomorrow. If it is not signed, the company will be forced to bankruptcy and Barry will have to apply for unemployment Monday morning. And thank God such a thing exists, but it will still be a monster hit against what he normally earns.

Today the news crews are all over his company, raising hell about what is going on, and how the State sucks. That don't pay the mortgage though, does it?

We will be fine though, we always are. Just have to change some things, some of them big, some of them small, but we will figure it out. It may be good for us by forcing us to move some horses out and quit living like rich people, because we just are not. We never were, but sometimes we forgot that. OK a lot of times we forgot that.

Cross your fingers that things fall into place.

Fail

It finally happened. The State of Illinois has failed to pay the parent company that Barry works for for a long enough time that he is now laid off.

I am in shock, hysterics, and I do not know if there are enough sedatives in the world to get me under control.

Until I get that handled, please spread the word of how my horses have to go. Send people my way if they are looking for some super nice broodmares, or young stock.

I never thought this could happen to us

Crash

Nope not me, I did not crash. I did not crash the trailer, I did not crash off a horse.

But when we got home, we found that this tree crashed the fence.
While this is never good, this is particularly disturbing, as this fence is sort of crappy anyway, because it ran through these monster trees, so it did not have to be great. Slowly but surely though, the trees have fallen down. I hear the wind was pretty vicious while we were gone, and this certainly backs up that claim. Barry says that the down part is close to 40 feet in length. It also served as decent shelter, as there were so many limbs that rain almost could not get through it.

Blech. Something else to fix.

I will be back tomorrow with pics and updates from the weekend, and growing baby shots. Stay tuned

Cartoons and Convicts

Yesterday demonstrates just how bizarre my life is.
It started as a normal day, with me feeling some weird pressure to finish up some projects at work. I was trying and being fairly successful, but I had to cut it short to make a run down to Menard Correctional Center. It was to be a simple visit--just pick up some paperwork and get it filed for an inmate--and it was ready and waiting for me. Getting to Menard is not easy. It is only 75 miles from me, but it takes right at 1:45 to get there--it is all two lane roads, at this time of year, you are bound to get stuck behind a tractor. Which I did, but it was still a nice drive as it was a gorgeous day, I had the sunroof open and good music. It was a great break from the stress I was putting on myself.

Menard is right on the banks of the Mississippi River but that is about the only thing to recommend it. It was built in 1878, and has around 3500 inmates it. It is a maximum security prison. It used to have death row there, but not anymore. John Wayne Gacy was at Menard for a long time. Robert Ben Rhoades, the serial killer, was there. I represented him for a while. Anyway, it is so scary that horror movies have been filmed there. Almost every time I have ever been there, it has been storming, which makes it even worse.
This is the view of the Mississippi that some of the inmates have. Not bad, eh?

Anyway, that is what I did yesterday, I went to prison. It is the biggest employer in that town, but it is not the only thing Chester is known for.

It is much more famous for this.

This is where Popeye is from. This statue is in a park at the base of the bridge. So really, the view posted above would be Popeye's view. If he could see. Since I was there last, they have added to the collection. I found Olive Oyl and Sweet Pea on the corner near the County Court House.

When I turned the corner and went a few blocks--there was Wimpy. He is my favorite. Other than Alice the Goon of course, I love her the most, but no statue of her has shown up yet.

This covered bridge is outside of town. Isn't it pretty?


That was the work part of the day, and I guess to most people that is a little odd. To me it is not strange.

What is strange is how the wildlife turned on me last night. You already know about the skunk in the tack room in the house barn and the demon kitties. You probably already know about the fat groundhog family, one of which is giving me the finger every time I see him. What you do not know is about the raccoon who tried to kill me last nite.

While I as at the farm feeding and cleaning stalls around 7 or 8 last nite waiting for the vet--who came to ultrasound HaidaGirl who had done nothing at all to warrant the expense of that, and to lavage Gypsy and do IgG test on the baby, both of whom refused to be caught so got nothing--I heard a ruckus. I assumed it was the cat on top of something climbing up to the loft over the tackroom area. It was not the cat though, as he was resting on a cabinet. I watched for a while, and saw a striped tail hanging down from the loft where the varmint must have been climbing up there. I hollered at it a while, telling it that I did not need another SOB stealing my horse feed and shitting up my barn and carrying disease and he needed to move along. He did not answer me and it got quiet up there.

I had just turned my back when I heard the ruckus start up again. I turned around and there was a raccoon flying at me! I am not known for my quick reflexes, but thank God, I managed to get out of the way before the raccoon took me down.

I do not think this is normal. I do not think that raccoons are supposed to fly. I know for a fact they are not supposed to launch themselves at me. That stupid raccoon stood there looking at me for a while, then he went in the groundhog hole and looked at me from down there. Somehow he made me feel like was bothering him.

The wildlife revolt that is going on here has got to stop.

And it that day does not show just how weird my life is, I do not know what does.

One mystery solved

I guess that cat I wondered about--the one I thought had to be pregnant--was. She may have been done being pregnant by the time I saw her, because these kitties seem a little big for that time. I heard them just as I went into Sly's barn to feed him dinner. The first thing I saw as I entered the barn was a damn skunk toddling out of the tack room---then I heard the meowing. At first I thought it was skunk babies--that would be my luck, but they were kitty sounds not chattering like baby skunk sounds. This just after I had it out with a raccoon at the farm. I swear I am being tortured by the wildlife.

Anyway, I got my flashlight and found these two cuddled up right away. I went back to the farm to get them some food, and took it to them, then aimed in the dark with my camera, hoping to catch them with the flash.

These are some very angry little kitties. They hissed and spit the whole time I was there. I could see from the pics that the little dude--the maddest one--has a matted up eye, and I would like to help him, but I am not getting tore up by an 8 ounce hellion. That other dude--the one in the corner--looks kind of jacked up to me. Like his body is too big and his head is not on right. That is another thing that I am not going to find out about, the way the little bastards were carrying on.

Actually, mad cats suit me fine. I have no problem with that. I am allergic to them, so I prefer they not waller up on me like farm kitties do. Without Madison around to love all over these kitties--she lives by the farm, not the house--they have a chance of staying alive and tending to rodents for me. As long as they stay out of the yard, where the dogs can get them. They should though, since the barn is not really close to the house--they probably do not even know about the house.

Speaking of the house, when I got home from the crazy day, the garage door was standing open. Tequila was outside, but pig was nowhere to be found.

Do you have any idea how much mess one peeg can make when he has the run of the house all day? He got into the pig food, the dog food, the bathroom--he loves toilet paper--and he wadded up the Big Dead Red rug in the living room. He must have had a fun day

A horse of a different Color

Finally! Gypsy foaled this morning, likely a little before 5 am. I was sure she would go last nite, but after hours of watching her pace, I gave up and went to bed. Lorna found her on the foalcam just as I was pulling it up around 7 a.m. I went right over to see and was glad to see that I had a healthy baby, and a girl at that. A little disappointed that of all things, she was sorrel, since Gypsy is brown and Boonsmal Cee Lena is blue roan, but at least she was healthy.
The drier she got though, the more white hairs showed up! Woo hoo, we got roan!

These hopping around pics were at lunchtime, so she was a few hours old, and this was her first time out of the stall.
She got a little hoppy, but it evidently scared her, as she slammed on the brakes quickly and almost knocked herself over.

It is amazing to me how much babies change in just a few short hours, from bony stick babies to filled out.
I took hundreds of pics after work. I turned them out to play for just a little while, but they had so much fun that I could not bear to bring them in. I hope they are enjoying themselves!






Gypsy loves her baby, and was so content that she even allowed me to get pics of her that are not hideous, which is dang near impossible to do. For such a pretty horse, Gypsy is so unphotogenic. Of course, this one is not great as she is chewing or hollering, but baby girl looks cute and that is the point. Look how she is rounding out already.

I have no idea what I will call her. Gypsy's real name is High Brow Gypsy (High Brow Hickory x Cardanita x Peponita) and dad is Boonsmal Cee Lena (Peptoboonsmal x Holly Cee Lena x Doc O'lena).

Bring on the ideas!

Went too far

I have been warned of this, but it never happened before.

Today I had a particularly stressful workout with the Beast--who has a bulging disk and may well be trying to dissipate his pain by taking it out on me.

I had to do 100 squats. It may not sound like much, but it is. Try it. I will wait for you to get back when you are done.

Done? Harder than it sounds huh? I get a little nauseated about 40 into it. But I did it. The Beast always asks me a day or two after doing a lot of squats if I am still able to sit on the toilet without collapsing. Well it finally happened. On my way to pee, my legs flat gave out and I crashed on the can.

That was such an embarrassing moment. At least it was my own toilet and no one was home, except for Tequila who came to see what the ruckus was about. And if I had never blogged about it, no one would know, but evidently I do not know when to shut up.

Another thing I had to do was a buttload of sit-ups. He saves them for the end when I am already shaking all over, so it is even harder to do. My ankles actually hurt from putting my toes under another machine to brace against. It kinda feels like I have been walking in high heels, which is not my forte at all.

All of this would not matter except that I was supposed to do my cardio after work, and after my workout with the Beast. However, I flat could not do it. Then I get to the farm, where I have the full house of horses stalled and realize that this was Madison's track meet day, so I still had to feed, water, hay and clean everyone. No big deal, but it added even more exhaustion to me.

I got some great pics of storm clouds as they rolled in--we would not want to go a day without freaking rain here--but I am too wiped out to even get up and get the camera. It was do pics or eat and I guess we know where I came down on that one.

Finally though, Gypsy is considering foaling--she has a touch of wax tonight, and has been pacing for a solid two hours. I am watching her via foalcam, trying to talk myself into going to sleep with her, but I do not want to for some reason. She keeps stopping and posturing as if she has to pee, but no one has to pee that much, so it must be getting close.

I am looking forward to tomorrow--lots going on and perhaps a new foal--I just hope I can bear my own weight under my own power. Anyone want to take bets on if I will be able to get out of bed on my own?

In which we act like normal people

Today, Barry and I went shopping. Like normal people. We bought only one thing for a horse, and that was at Sam's--soy oil for Grandpa. Other than that, we bought clothes in a smaller size for me and just more clothes for Barry.

Because I am new to shopping in the normal people's section for clothes,---kind of like a born-again normal size person-- I had to try on things. I am not used to that. After all, when you are so fat like I was, it is not like anything is going to look good, so the only question is whether you like it, and can get it on. Now, things are fitting, and they don't even look bad, and the wildest thing is happening. Sometimes the size large shirt fits better than the XL, so I have to try things on. Jenna says I buy my clothes too big, and she is probably right, so I would try them on and ask Barry who just sat there and stared at me. It was kind of fun to have options though, instead of just buying whatever they have in circus size.

We tried a new restaurant-the Outlaw Blues Saloon. I do not recommend it. It was still fun to pick somewhere new.

Why did we do this, you ask? Because it was raining cats and dogs, and that meant we could not do anything else we normally would do on the weekend. By the time we got home to do the few horse chores that had a time limit, there was water everywhere. The road to the farm is not yet under water, because it is so high, but the water is almost high enough to cross it.

The barn had four occupants when we left--and thank goodness that the stalls are built up so much, or those poor ponies would be standing in water. They all needed cleaning, and we had to get Aries and Spike in, and HaidaGirl. Then Grandpa wanted to come in--which is very strange for him, but evidently he is not smart enough to get under some shelter and was just standing in the rain like some poor homeless. It was a disgusting nasty mess. There is so much water standing in the barn aisles, etc, that tromping around in there caused water to go over my shoes. That is always a great feeling.

Anyway, that got done in surprisingly fast fashion, considering that it took Barry wearing special shoes, and Cash's stall was disgusting. There is not much nastier than a mare nursing a foal when it comes to housekeeping. Uno and Reno are getting along quite well with their lessons, and are quite oblivious to what awaits them on Tuesday.

Only one thing remains left undone, and that is the replacement of the fence charger that is evidently the cause of the fence problem here. All that work we did and it appears the charger itself is fried, and we drove right past the TSC today and forgot to stop. Oh yeah, the little trailer is still in the mud. Crap. Bet it stays there for a while too.

Barry went to work to get a jump on his paperwork for the week so they can head out of state again in the morning, and I am trying to get house stuff done. I HAVE to be more on top of things this week, and jacking around this late at nite is no way to do it. I suspect that I will be sleeping at the farm with Gypsy this week, as she is still freaking pregnant.

Happy week everyone!

Surprise-no RAIN!

Today's rain prediction was off by about twelve hours, I guess. Thank goodness though, as it let us catch up on so much that has needed to be done but cannot be when it is always raining. I got both yards mowed--which is about 3 or 4 hours of mowing. That helped repair the back yard where Sly, Fonzie and Twist have torn it all to hell where they kept coming into it over the last week while we had a fence malfunction. There was not really much to mow as they have been working on it so much, but it does look way better. There were many piles of horse poop on the back porch, which is always charming. I know it as Sly though, as there is evidence that he stood in one place for a long time, or repeatedly and pooped on his own poop--since it is by the window, I know it was him, as he always likes to come look for me at the back door. My boy loves me.

Barry got the new jump wires on the gates, so that problem of the malfunctioning fence should be resolved. He also cut down a bunch of irritating little saplings, which for some reason makes a huge difference in how things look.

The rest of the day was spent working at the farm.

Poor Gypsy is fighting having this baby. She has been stalled with little turnout lately, as I knew she would spit this child out in the mud given the opportunity.
She got to go out for a while today, and she did not even appreciate it. She spent most of the day looking at me, over the fence, while I did everything else.
She even looks depressed to me. She has gone six days later than she did last year, which was her maiden year. So she is 346 days today. No wonder she is miserable. I am so excited to see this baby --so she is not the only impatient one.
I also was able to give some baths, since it was 75 degrees. It does not show up in the pics, but Sly was almost metallic after getting the winter dirt out of his coat. He did not even get a thorough bath, but a basic scrubbing.
He is such a pretty boy. I think he is wondering why he has not been to the farm to see his ladies, and I have not broken it to him that he may not be seeing many of them this year at all. I have turned down outside requests and am considering giving most of his ladies the year off and only using our outside breedings.

Twist got a bath too--and he changed shades at least 6 times from filthy to his almost white color.
Grandpa has evidently forgotten what the point of hay is. He has been staying in the bull shed area and forgetting to go out to the round bale. I think he is trying to avoid trudging through the mud, and who can blame him for that? And it does not really matter since he is on Senior anyway, but it seems sad to me. Late afternoon, Barry suggested we throw him out with Gypsy in that pasture, to perhaps get her moving instead of standing at the gate looking pathetic. That would have worked great except he really likes grass, so he did not move very much, other than to roll and move to different sections. He was very excited to get real grass again.

Looks pretty good for a 29 year old man, doesn't he?

Also while at the farm, we had to chase down Haida Girl to Regumate her in anticipation of her upcoming breeding to Sophisticated Catt, and her recent episode of stalling has clearly made her half a loon. She was having so much fun out in the pasture that we stopped what we were doing to watch her put on a show. I don't know that I know many horses more athletic than that one, but of course, she quit when I got out the camera. Aries had to have her Lutalyse shot in anticipation of Dr M's visit on Tuesday, also to have her bred to Sophisticated Catt.

While out there, we got some shots of other random folks, including Melody's little girl, who is awful darn cute. I do not know however what the llama impression is she is doing here.

And no, she still does not have a name. I am leaning toward calling her Bijou, which was one of Lorna's early suggestions. It has grown on me, and then someone else suggested it, so maybe it is meant to be.

Two young men, Reno and Uno were captured and dewormed and told some unfortunate news. They too will be seeing the vet on Tuesday, for the brain surgery most young men need. I love me some mass gelding day, and it has been four years since I have had many to do all together. Two is not so much, but it is more than one so it qualifies for "mass gelding day". Uno in particular is a really nice colt, put together so nicely, and has a great attitude. I hope to get him out for some pics tomorrow, if we get a break in the rain. If things go right this week, they will see the farrier as well.

Cash had her foot dressing changed. I think the abcess is settling again, as she seemed a little ouchy today. I will have that addressed again on Tuesday as well, if this round of treatment does not draw it out. This one is taking a lot longer than usual, for some reason. She got to go out with her baby girl last nite, and we left her diaper full of iccthammol on her and turned her loose. Man did she have a good time. She looked ridiculous, running balls to the wall while wearing a baby diaper and duct tape on her foot, but whatever. She was only out for a few hours, but it did her good to get to buck and carry on and play with her little girl. Hopefully, soon, that will be her full-time status.

Barry started getting the big horse trailer ready, in anticipation of our big trail ride with some internet crazies, and Headleys and Jodi next week. The weather has stabilized enough that he could fill the water tanks, which will make life much nicer for me when I have to stay there with Gypsy this week. Although, God willing, she will spit this child out tonight, so I can really keep the doc busy when he is here Tuesday morning.

It has been a long day, but we got so much done, it was very satisfying. I have been sinning nonstop on the food and drink since Thursday nite, so I am back on the wagon tomorrow. I am at 29 pounds down which is pretty dang good. I already need a new hole in my new belt. My trainer had to cancel Friday, so I feel like I have not done anything, even though I certainly have. I am already addicted to that.

It is almost time for Saturday Night Live, so it is time to push post on this one.

But let's call this my first post for Camera Critters
How did I not know this was going on?

Hard day for no reason

I should have known this day would be jacked up when I went to bed at a reasonable hour--and then woke up at 2 am in horrible pain. I could not even poinpoint what exactly the problem was--I just ached and stung all over. Mostly it was in my upper back, but it was so intense that I could not get enough relief to sleep. I gobbled a bunch of ibuprofen but still could not get back to sleep until almost 5 am.

I did not know what was wrong with me--my back hurt, my neck hurt and after being a while, my head hurt. It was awful

And of course, that put me off my schedule this morning. I must have gotten comfortable enough to sleep because the next thing I knew it was 9:30. I rushed to work, mentally rearranging my day, as I had to get in 8.5 hours today, but I also had to get in an hour of spinning, sometime between 5:10 and 6:30.

Yeah, that did not work out so well. I could not make it very long at work. I hurt so bad, my ears were teared up with stingi-ness. I ended up coming home at noon, taking a heavy duty pain killer and going to bed.

When I woke up, I felt great, so I managed to go spin, then to the farm. That is one thing that never can get skipped, there is never a day off, no matter how you feel. I needed to bring a round bale of hay to the house, hook up the trailer, take Sly over there and tease mares, etc.

So little of that happened. I managed to get the hay here, but after that, I was struck down pretty hard. Just looking at everything I had to do made me feel even worse. I took the truck back to the farm to get the trailer, stopping on the way to figure out what the deal is with the fence at the house, which is allowing the horses to get into the back yard. This is what I was treated to last nite when I got home--and again tonight, of course. Sly, Twist and Fonzie all in the back yard. Last nite, the walk gate from the yard to the pasture was standing wide open--we are so waterlogged, they were able to shove the post so that it was almost out of the ground--and it is set three feet in the found and in concrete and has been fine for 9 years. Now it is so wet that it actually wobbles.

Twist and Sly were easy to send back through the gate, but Fonzie was another story. He was putting on a show for me.


He was full of himself for sure. I have no idea what got into him. But at least I got some funny pictures.

You can imagine all the damage they did to my yard...I fell in divots full of water that were so deep, I had mud on my damn knees.

So anyway, I figured out that the jump line for the hotwire at the front walk gate is completely fubared--sliced in half, I have no idea why. And that makes it too short to reattach. I will have to put new on altogether. Hopefully, the boys do not notice that if they can get out of the pasture into the backyard, they can get elsewhere as well. I will tend to that in the morning, God willing, if I am not dead from these horrible aches.

I got back to the farm and tried to hook up the trailer. Did that work? No. Why not? Because Barry parked it in such a place that I had to drive through mud to hook it up. Not only was it at a jacked up angle that took several efforts to get lined up, then I got stuck in the mud. To hell with it.

Then I noticed that Grandpa was still penned in his run, and needed to be let out. That necessitated me tromping through the mud in my Crocs and socks. I do not have any mud boots as I cannot get regular boots to fit my fat right foot--I cannot pull them on. I try to avoid this kind of nastiness, but it is not always possible. What should have been a two minute job was twenty minutes of having my shoes pulled off in the mud, and having to find them again. I just wanted to give up, lay down and cry right there in the mud.

Of course, that is when company showed up. Story of my life.

So fence was not fixable tonight, trailer not gettable, and I still hurt. The tractor is still here at the house, the truck is at the farm, I have no clean shoes, and I probably will not be able to figure out where the truck is in the morning, or why the tractor is here. I might even back into it with my car before I notice that.

On a good note, Tequila is improving my leaps and bounds. She is even gaining weight.




The verdict on my illness is carb withdrawal. No one told me about this. It sucks bad. Supposedly, I have only 48 hours of this hell, so I am almost halfway through. I sure hope so, I do not have time for this lunacy.

I am hunting a Vicodin and going to bed.

Voodoo goes to school

It was bound to happen some time, and I do not know why I am surprised at this, but in the process of trimming and moving horses a few weeks ago, I took Barry's word for it when he said that Voodoo was in a certain pasture. Which then meant that we proceeded with several things from that assumption, for things such as trimming, deworming, etc.

All the horses in the back pasture are hay only horses, which normally keeps them fat as ticks, but this one-off supplier we used provided us with hay of a far lower quality than we are used to--and since it was paid for in advance, we had to feed it. It is not bad hay. It just nowhere near the quality they are used to, so the fatties dropped some weight. I discovered this, and that meant that Voodoo needed to come in to get fed up for a couple of weeks, on way better hay and some Strategy, etc.

Except, 8 days into Voodoo Rehab, I realized that that was not Voodoo. It was Boogie. Who has already been to the trainer, and although he needs to go again, I have other priorities right no. That threw off the training schedule, as I had to start all over with the Rehab on him. And I should not admit that it took me close to an hour to figure out who in the hell that was in the stall. But it did.

Anyway, the day finally came this weekend, and Voodoo was delivered to his trainer, Bobby.

This is his dismount from the trailer. His very first trailer loading and trailer ride were without incident--he hopped right up in for Barry before I was even out of the shower. I did not expect it to be that easy! When he got out, he looked around, sighed real big--then spooked at an imaginary booger. Or a peacock, hard to say at his house---I did not see a peacock though, so I am calling it an imaginary booger.

And please ignore how crappy Voodoo looks--the dried mud on his legs is what is left after an hour of grooming him on Saturday. We have been underwater here for weeks, and the weather is so crazy that none of the horses have shed off normally. Poor Voodoo has bald spots where he is shedding off all loony--he looks like he has mange.
As we pulled in, we saw Bobby loping across huge fields on this big roan--with his working dogs in tow. I tried to get shots of that, but could not catch up--it looked so happy. Just after Voodoo's spook, Bobby asked to take his lead and see how he acted being ponied from the roan horse. The poor little guy was a little anxious, but he took just fine to being snugged up close to the roan. I was proud of how quickly he settled in. Young horses are just full of surprises when they go on their first trip off the farm--you never can predict just what will happen.


Training at Bobby's is a complete 180 from a lot of trainers that I have used--that is one of the things I like about it. The horses are not stalled full-time--something I hate to see happen to a young horse like it does in a show barn. They are exposed to so many things at Bobby's--like dogs, etc, and any crazy thing he can think of to teach them. Still I was wondering if Voodoo was ready for his first step--to follow the roan horse through a walk door. Only a slight hesitation, and he walked through it like he did it every day.


Next Bobby just fiddled with him, while still on the roan. He chucked the rope at him, and aggravated Voodoo in every manner possible. Voodoo was pretty unphased by the whole thing.
And when I say he tried to aggravate him, I mean he tried to aggravate him. Look at the look on Voodoo's face--he clearly is asking me WTF is going on here?

Voodoo liked Bobby though, and I could tell he was going to be okay. Last time I left one at the trainer, I felt so guilty as he looked so scared. But this time it was okay. Strange that.


And then I see this picture, where he looks a little scaredy.

BUT, last nite, mid-Nudie tragedy, I got a phone call from Bobby. Actually he called earlier in the day but the call got dropped before we got to talk. That had me nervous all afternoon, because I was sure something had happened and Voodoo was hurt already.

Finally we got ourselves lined out and I learned that Voodoo was completely happy and having a good time. Bobby had started playing with him in the morning, flexing and bending and doing general stuff and he did good. By the afternoon, he started wondering what he could do to set him off, so he got him out again, and tried to set him off. None of the regular things worked--he tried the flag on a stick, throwing a rope at him, everything. Nothing did it. He had to spank him on the butt with the stick, while Bobby was horseback on another horse, to get him to move out at all. Then he could get him to trot and lope circles around him.


Since Voodoo was doing so well, he decided to introduce him to the saddle and see what happened. Turns out there was nothing to see. Then he stood in the stirrup and still nothing. Voodoo was so easy to get along with, he threw a leg over him.

Still nothing.

Figuring he had pushed him past any reasonable point, Bobby ended by getting Voodoo to move with him in the saddle.

His report to me was that Voodoo seemed to want to do right, and wanted to please. After the last one I sent him a while ago, who was absolutely not interested in pleasing anyone, he knew how happy I would be to hear that.

I know it means nothing long term, and probably by the end of this week, he will be up to no good, but for his first day, he was a superstar!

No I am not kidding

I had a birthday party for Slater tonight. Yes, he is a dog. No, I do not care if you think I am insane.

Mostly, I did it for the funny photo opportunities, but all the same, I had a party for my dog. No one else could come, as there was a tragedy that interfered today. My parents's dog Nudie had to be put to sleep this afternoon, which of course put them in the non-celebratory mood. In fact, it put a damper on the festivities for everyone. It breaks my heart, because I know how horrible it feels to lose one, and because no one can fix it. It also makes me appreciate the time I have with my own dogs, even if it is silly time like this.
One of Slate's favorite things in the world is Dairy Queen, so Barry brought DQ for everyone last nite because he thought he would not be here tonight. When we put the dish in his food bowl, he put the whole thing in his mouth and took it to my recliner where he laid it down, I guess to rest until he wanted it. I had to get it and put it back two times, before it occurred to me to dump it out of the DQ dish and put it in his bowl like that. Duh. That is why we have leather furniture though.
Simba was very glad to see that she got ice cream too.
Tequila even got hers delivered to her room. She has clearly never had ice cream, which makes me sad. I know it is not good for them, but Slater loves it so much, he gets it some times. After we convinced Quila to try it, she loved it and gobbled it out of a bowl.
And what is a birthday without birthday cake? Since Barry got to be home tonight unexpectedly, we had to have the real party. That included party hats and cake. Simba is such a nice girl, taking her treat.
Slater gobbled so fast he ended up making such a big mess, that Simba ended up with most of it, eating it off the floor. And that is why we no longer have carpet in most of our house.
Barry refuses to take a decent picture--he looks completely squirrelly here. And really he is only half squirrely. Just the kind of doofus who will wear a party hat for his dog's birthday. Plus, I think Simba had her tongue stuck in his ear. She loves him.
Quila was not sure about the hat thing, but she wore it. This whole birthday thing confused her, but maybe that is because she does not have one. God willing, we will celebrate her Gotcha day this fall.
I cannot explain this.
All that partying wore Slate slap out. He pitched over in the floor by Barry's chair, rolled up on his back and went to sleep.



Even Boce got to get in on the party action. Well, he got a hat. Because that is just funny. Oddly, he minded the hat less than anyone. Since he has no neck, the elastic went in his mouth. I don't think he even noticed, he went to eating his dinner like it was not even there.

Now find me someone else who has a pig who wears birthday party hats. I knew I would find my niche in the blogging world eventually.